Yesterday, the Union Home Minister introduced in the Lok Sabha “The 130th Constitution (Amendment) Bill” which proposes to remove a Central or State Minister (including the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister) from office if they are arrested and detained for 30 days in relation to an offence punishable with 5 years or more imprisonment. The similar act will also apply to Union territories having an assembly, and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act 2019, and the bills for the same were also introduced simultaneously
While the motion to introduce the Bills was met with heavy opposition by political leaders, including Asaduddin Owaisi (AIMIM), Manish Tiwari and KC Venugopal (Congress), Dharmendra Yadav (SP) and Premchandran (RSP), the Bill was eventually allowed to be introduced as a result of the voting process. A separate motion to refer the Bills to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) was also allowed.
Comulatively, the 3 bills propose to empower President/Governor/Lt Governor to remove a Central/State/Union Territory Minister from office if they are jailed for 30 days on allegations of involvement in a serious offence. The bills were offered to JPC, consisting of 21 Lok Sabha members and 10 Rajya Sabha members.
The 130th Constitution (Amendment) Bill seeks to introduce a new clause in Article 75 of the Constitution (dealing with Central Ministers);
“ A Minister, who for any period of thirty consecutive days during holding the office as such, is arrested and detained in custody, on allegation of committing an offence under any law for the time being in force, which is punishable with a imprisonment term for a term which may extend to five years or more, shall be removed from his office by the President on the advice of Prime Minister to be tendered by the thirty first day, after being taken in such custody”.
Ifthe Prime Minister does not render such advice to the President by the 31st day, the Minister concerned shall automatically cease to hold the office from the following day. The provision however shall not bar the Minister from being appointed to the office by the President after release from custody. Similar clauses are sought to be inserted in Article 164 (with respect to State Ministers) and Article 239AA (with respect to NCT of Delhi). Likewise amendment to UT Act and also J&K Reorganisation Act, and other UTs.
In the Statement of Objects and Reasons for this 130th Constitution (Amendment) Bill, it is stated that a Minister holding office should be beyond any ray of suspicion and act only for welfare of people. It is further stated that a Minister who is detained over allegation of serious criminal offences “ may thwart or hinder the canons of constitutional morality and principles of good governance and eventual diminish the constitutional trust reposed by people in him”.
This Bill comes in the backdrop of certain instances of ministers, including Chief Ministers being arrested and detained for serious offences. For instance, former Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal (accused in the Delhi Liquor policy Scam), former Tamil Nadu minister V Senthil Balaji (accused in TN Cash-for-Jobs Scam), Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren (accused in Land Scam), former West Bengal Education Minister Partha Chhaterjee (accused in WB recruitment scam), etc. faced jail time over money laundering charges.
Though most of the Ministers were granted bail, the cases are pending. Senthil Balaji in particular was removed from his post by TN Governor. However, following grant of bail, he was reinstated. Subsequently when his bail was sought to be cancelled, the SC expressed dismay at Balaji’s reinstatement and called him to choose between his post and liberty. Following this he resigned and the Court refused to cancel his bail.
In my opinion, this type of Amendment to the Constitution was long over due. It has been seen that Minister, whether of the Centre or the State, think they are above law and they can do what they like. Classical example was Arvind Kejriwal, who was running Delhi government from prison, it was only after the SC’s intervention he was forced to resign from his post of CM.
The various political parties mainly who oppose BJP have strongly condemned this Bill saying that “ the provisions of the Bill may be used for selectively targeting Opposition leaders, destabilizing their governments in States. These parties have been claiming for long time that Central agencies like CBI and ED unfairly target their leaders.
In my opinion, the law will apply only when a Minister faces serious offence, and the investigating agencies after doing serious investigation of the said offence takes action of detaining and arresting the Minister. This does not happen overnight and it takes time. Problem is that there are many political parties and their Ministers are involved in serious offences and corrupt practices, and when the investigating agencies apprehend them, they start shouting it is political vendetta. Second problem is that when ever BJP led Government brings out any law, the opposition parties first role is to say it is anti-democratic and it will be used as political vendetta by the ruling party. They forget that for any thing that happens, these same parties approach High Court and the Supreme Court for intervention. Secondly in this Amendment even Prime Minister is also included, so these political parties can not say that PM Modi has got immunity from this law.
Only time will tell what will be fate of this Constitution Amendment Bill, as now it has gone to JPC, I hope the better sense prevail among the members of this JPC, and the Amendment is passed after due consultations and modifications if necessary.
Waiting for your feedback on this blog.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
21st August 2025